Early Arthritis

Early or mild osteoarthritis of the hip is a common problem associated with sharp or aching pain.

Often, the symptoms are not bad enough to warrant hip resurfacing or hip replacement, but they are troublesome enough to interfere with everyday life. In some people, we can work out what is causing the pain, and this may be a amenable to treatment to reduce pain and disability.

When the damage to the hip and the symptoms are more severe, it can be a difficult decision as to whether to attempt joint preserving surgery or whether to proceed straight away with a resurfacing or replacement. But our understanding of what causes arthritis and the techniques of joint preservation and cartilage repair are improving all the time. It seems likely that more and more people will be able to delay or avoid hip replacement or resurfacing in the future.